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| The man's face was bloodless....He reached for Johnny. Johnny screamed. He felt a dead hand close on the back of his robe. The zombie held Johnny in its unearthly grip.
When Johnny Dixon, Professor Childermass, and Fergie Ferguson have a party for their friend Dr. Coote, they expect the evening to be a blast -- and it is! -- but not quite the way they have in mind. As Fergie pounds out a rhythm on a small drum, a howling wind shakes the house and something explodes. Soon Johnny, the professor, and Fergie are in a battle with the fearsome Priests of the Midnight Blood for Dr. Coote's life -- and their own. |
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Fergie imitating I Love Lucy's Ricky Ricardo ("Babaloo!") while beating on a drum. |
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Fergie unknowingly calling forth an evil voodoo spirit when imitating I Love Lucy's Ricky Ricardo ("Babaloa!") while beating on a drum. |
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Just as he decided that he had better go back upstairs and wake the professor, he heard something. A creak, stealthy and quiet, coming from the darkness of the cellar stairs. Johnny backed away. A dark figure moved in the blackness inside the cellar door. Johnny opened his mouth to shout a warning.
Someone lurched into the room, and the warning froze like ice in Johnny's throat.
A man had staggered out of the cellar. His hair was black, and his face white and bloodless, as if made of marble. His cheeks were sunken, his lips purple and pulled back from yellow teeth. But his eyes . . . they were the worst of all. They were filmed and blind, the cloudy color of light-blue chalk. Rimmed with fine black dirt, the eyes stared sightlessly straight ahead. He wore a black suit, and he thrust his arms before him, like someone sleepwalking. The appearance of anyone from that dark cellar would have shocked Johnny, but this man terrified him. This man was dead. |
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| "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" courtesy Jonathan Abucejo. |
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| This is the ninth book in the Johnny Dixon series. It is the third book "completed" by Brad Strickland. |
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| Stats |
Author: Brad Strickland (47)
Published: September 1994
Chapters: 15
Pages: 153
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| Awards |
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| Adaptations |
There are no known adaptations of this work. |
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| Allusions |
None known. |
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| Dedication |
Thanks to Jeanne Sharp, reader and advisor.
Brad Strickland: "Jeanne is a super young woman who was a dedicated Bellairs fan," explains Strickland. "She got in touch with my agent when she learned I was working on completing the Bellairs novels and sternly told me I'd better do a good job! She seemed so well-read in John's work that I sent her the manuscript of The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie to check for errors. She found only a few, but made lots of suggestions ("You've got to mention Fergie's big feet!"). She vetted a couple more of the books, until she became so busy with college that she couldn't any more, but by that time I was ready to fly on my own."
Thanks to those who helped: Gregory Nicoll, Steve Neshiem, Wendy Webb. |
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